Changing for Good
by Jam-on-toast-is-good
Summary: 1st person POV.After an accident, a random girl gets thrust into that crazy, hectic world that we all know and love. What on Earth, I mean, Spira is she going to do? I am aware that the first few chapters are Sue-ish, but please don't judge too quicky Thx
1. The Accident

**Me:** ...peeks out from behind corner...jumps out and smiles brightly hello my fellow duckies!

(sharp objects fly at authoress)

**Me:** O.O ...eep! (hides behind FFX plushies) WAIT! I bring gifts!

(sharp objects fall to ground)

**Me:** ...Whew...I know I know...I have anger you by deleting the chapters...and putting them up again...after a few months...(sharps object twitch)

**Me:** (scoots away to far corner) But I have a reason! I got kinda upset with the first three chapters and in a huff of confusion I abandoned them. (sad music begins to play) I neglected my baby! I'm sorry! (huggles story) But now I'm back!...(silence)...Ahem...anyway, I have decided that I made my character too Sue-ish for my tatse so de-Sueified her. And now here are the new and IMPROVED chapters of 'Changing for Good.'

**Me:** Oh! And if Auron's Fan is reading this right now...yes...everyone studies Al Bhed at home...I mean, come on! You can speak to people in a language that they'll never understand unless they are a FFX fanatic! It's kewl...

**Me:** Oh! And before I forget! FFX plushies for everyone! (Authoress gets rushed and trampled and...well you get the picture) cough cough...hey! Who left the Kinoc plushie?**

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Chapter 1: The Accident**

A T.V. with Tidus sitting by a fire on it was being watched by a girl, 15 with long brown hair and dark blue eyes.

"Here it comes…..5…4…3…2…1…"

"I need food!"

I hit my head with my blue PS2 controller. That line was reliable, unchanging, and…BORING! This was my 10th time starting one of my favorite games, incase you are impaired and didn't know it by the well known quote above it is Final Fantasy X, and it really was ticking me off. Why I felt the need to annoy myself for another day filled with kicking fiend ass and seeing cool cut scenes and finding secret temples and trying to make friends with Seymour and jumping through fields of daisies, laughing, crying, singing, andtelling each other our fears, hopes, and dreams….HA! Had you going there didn't I? Anyway…I sighed and looked at my T.V. with a picture of Tidus yelling for the fire not to go out…WTF? Why the heck was he talking to something that would just ignore him?

I stood up and shook my fist at him "Stupid! I'll teach you to talk like a crazy person! Burn out Fire, DIE FIRE DIE!"

"Jemma, shut up!" My older sister, Annie, called from upstairs where she was working on her History homework (yuck!).

"Syga sa! (Make me!)" I heard a shuffle and footsteps from upstairs. 'Oh cred…' I ran and tried to reach my room but my sister was already downstairs blocking me (How the heck did she beat me?).

She grabbed my arm and started to twist it in a way it should not go. "OW OW OW! Tysh ed Annie! That hurts!"

"What did you say to me!" 'Is it my fault that you don't understand Al Bhed and think I talked back to you….well…I did…but you don't need to know that…'

"I said 'See da saw'." My arm was starting to numb 'Vilg oui Annie…' I inwardly cursed in Al Bhed. I'm not a wimp but I can't hit my sister because 1) she would tell our parents and I would get the PS2 taken away (Damn it! . ) and 2) Small angry people scare me. (I mean she is like 5 foot and I'm 5'7".SEVEN INCH DIFFERENCE…brrr…scary) So I just stood there and took it (I am NOT a rat!).

"Gawd, Jemma! Leave me alone! Don't bother me again or Mom will take away your PS2 …" and with that she started to walk back upstairs. I stuck my tongue out at her (I know pitiful but what I could do…my PS2 was at stake). Luckily she left without anymore 'talking', if you can call it that, it sounds more like the old Charlie Brown cartoon adults did 'Wa won wa won wa won….' lol.

"Pedlr…" I mumbled as I went back to see that I had totally missed the cool scene where you see the bolt of lightning strike and that lizard fiend, the Klikk, appears and it's eyes glow red-ish and attacks Tidus. Now the battle music was playing and Tidus was out with his little wimpy sword (Brotherhood is sooooo much better) against a fiend who could kick his ass to the Farplane and back again…okay a little mean but my sister just won one our many battles AGAIN and I was mad. I sighed as I tried to beat it up A LITTLE at least. I silently thanked Rikku as she came in to join the battle and I just had to wonder again why her little 'workers' didn't help out…they just stand by the door…with guns…that are loaded…and that they know how to use… 'Whatever' I thought as I killed the fiend with one of Rikku's grenades. "Yes!" I pumped one of my fists into the air. I got up to do my lil' victory dance. Right hand up, half turn to the left, jump up turn to face the front again, raise both hands and swish 'swords' into the same pose that Rikku in FFX-2 does in their victory pose. 'Oh yeah….' I heard a snort from the corner of the room. I turned so quickly that I fell over my video game chair and landed on my butt with a loud, painful 'Thunk!'

"Owie…" I looked at the corner but no one was there "Ooookaaaay...Ghostie? Please go away ghostie…go somewhere else...like my sisters room…" There was no more noise so I turned back to the screen. I missed the gut punch scene!

"NOOOO!" I missed seeing Tidus getting beat up by a girl! I sighed in defeat as I took up the controller again and pulled faces at Brother trying to communicate with Tidus, the first time I played this I thought that he was imitating a blowfish monkey in heat, hee hee…Bored again. I sighed again. As soon as I was able to get to a save sphere I saved and turned off the game. As much as I complain about it I still love that game, but I was kind of tired. I got up, stretched, and looked at the clock, '…Hmm…3:51…'

I went into my room and cranked up my radio. 'Ahh Broadway… (I'm a drama-music freak I know...)' I flopped on my bed and snuggled into my snowy blue cotton sheets… 'Boy…I'm tired…' My eyes started to droop. 'Mmmm…maybe I'll just take a little nap then I'll 'salvage the big prize!' I smirked at my little quote. '…If I was able to go to Spira and travel with Tidus, Yuna, Auron, and everyone else…I would be able to make a _real_ perfect ending…hee hee big headed moment…' I shut my eyes only to become more confused.

'_I was falling in a black room. Just falling. I wasn't even screaming. I was just watching myself fall into the black abyss. I fell for so long that I lost track of time. Finally I reached a piece of solid ground; at least it felt like it. I couldn't see it at all but I was standing on it. Suddenly a burst of color surrounded me on all sides. I winced and squinted my eyes so that I wouldn't be blinded. Once I was used to the bright light after all of the darkness had left, I saw that I was standing in the Farplane. I walked forward into the field of flowers 'Wow…am I dead?'_

"_No…you're just visiting."_

_I spun around to se a little kid with a purple hood trimmed with gold. "You're the Bevelle faith…this is a cool dream…I think." I pinched myself and felt…nothing. "Yup!" I smiled "this is one of the coolest dreams I've had in awhile…too bad that this is only a dream." I nodded and frowned a little while the Fayth moved forward a little._

"_Did you really mean what you said?"_

_I scratched my head. "What did I say?"_

"_That you could create a real perfect ending for Spira."_

"_I didn't say that...I thought it."_

_The Fayth looked at me for a moment and then sighed. "Alright, did you really mean what you THOUGHT?"_

_I smiled a cocky grin, like Tidus when he talks about blitzball. "Of course!" I struck a 'tough' looking pose, a regular Rikku pose in FFX-2._

_The Fayth just shook his head. "This is what I have to work with...we're doomed."_

_After he said that that Farplane became all fuzzy and woozy. I blinked as the Bevelle Fayth disappeared. I shook my head and…'_

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in my room. I got up and yawned. 'Nice nap…' I thought as I went over to turn off the radio which was belting out an unidentifiable song. I stretched my arms over my head and went to check the clock.

"WTF!" The clock said that it was 6:50…A.M.

"OMG! I'm gonna be late for school! WTF? I just got back from school but…AAAHHH! I'm gonna be late!" I quickly changed my clothes (half-sleeve shirt w/ different fabrics sewn together and all different colors of red and flare dark blue jeans), brushed my hair, stuffed a piece of stray toast into my mouth, jump into my blue Nikes, grabbed my bag full of homework that I didn't do 'cuz I fell asleep (A/N Damn my teachers are a bunch of dictators!), and I ran out the door. My parents had already left and my sister…well I didn't really care where she was sooo….moving on. As I ran along the sidewalk to my high school I tripped on my untied shoelace and shouted out a string of curse words (best not to know eh kiddies?) and lost my piece of half eaten toast, so I tied my shoes and ran for it, stomach growling. I finally reached the three-quarters mark where one of my best friends, Gwen was waiting for me. I panted as I ran up to her "Too…much…homework…overslept…going…to…die…" And with that I collapsed at a pile near her feet.

Gwen, in a typical Gwen fashion, rolled her eyes and laughed. "You know…if you tried doing homework during study hall instead of talking all the time then your backpack would be lighter."

I just glared at her and grabbed a tree for support, pulling myself up only to fall on my butt again because my backpack got snagged on something. "Oof!" I glared at Gwen who was now laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes. I tried to regain whatever was not totally annihilated of my pride and started to walk to school, leaving Gwen to catch up.

"Jemma, wait for me!" Gwen caught up quickly, because of her oh-so-light backpack. I mumbled something unintelligent.

Gwen frowned a little. "What's wrong?" I looked at her and knew that she was really concerned, so I told her about my 15 hour 'nap', with out any dinner OR breakfast.

Gwen's face was etched with concern "That's unusual…maybe you're getting sick…"

"Pfft!" I scoffed "Maybe I'm finally cracking from all of those sleepless nights…"

"What were you doing staying up all night!"

"Uhh…" 'Playing Final Fantasy.' "Doing homework."

She rolled her eyes at me "Yeah right."

As we continued to walk along to school, talking about boys, Wicked, homework, Wicked, more boys, and Wicked! (A/N I LOOOVE WICKED!) We kept on talking until we finally reached the crosswalk to school where everyone else was already heading in, but the light turned just as we were about to cross so we had to wait. I was bored so I looked to see if any cars were coming. There was a semi not too far away but no other cars were near it. 'Bored…' I sighed as I turned my attention back to glaring at the light while Gwen was still talking about Mark (her crush), not caring if I was listening or not. A flash of purple caught my attention, and I saw a little boy in a purple coat…standing in the middle of the road.

My eyes went wide "Kid! Move, Kid!" The little boy just stood there facing the semi, which seemed to be speeding up. I didn't think. The kid wasn't moving so I started to move for him, heavy backpack and all (It's amazing what a little boost of adrenaline can do for someone). I sprinted out into the street, ignoring Gwen's cries to stop and tried to grab the kid. The semi was 500 feet away, and as I reached for the kid…he disappeared. I just stood there dumbly and looked up.

Darkness hit me.

* * *

**Me:** Weeeeeeeeeeell? (looks at readers with big doe eyes) Did ya think it was better with the changes? Well...this chapter didn't really have a lot so...you'll just have to read the next one! (smiles brightly) 

**Tidus:** Are you kidding! Why would they want to do that!

**Me:** (glares darkly at Tidus while sharpening machete) Wanna say that again, Tidy?

**Tidus:** (squeaks)...no...

**Me:** (room brightens) Okay then! R&R as always mah peeps!


	2. Huh?

**Me:** Well! Here ya go! Chapter 2 redone! Alright, alright...please keep the applause down.

(cricket chirp)

**Me:** ...mebbe a little higher?

(crickets stop)

**Me:** ...I have cookies...?

(applause starts)

**Me:** (smiles brightly) Okay then! I really don't have much to say but...take a cookie and enjoy chapter 2!

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**Chapter 2: ...Huh?**

I groaned as I opened my eyes, only to shut them again because of the bright light. Many thoughts were running through my head at the moment. Having a semi-truck run you over will do that to you. Like, was I dead, where was my backpack, or where do the missing socks from the washer go…I was feeling a little woozy so I just laid there until I heard some people walking by me say something about a blitzball game. My eyes snapped open and I jerked my head up.

'Blitzball?' I thought that is until I got a good look at my surroundings. There were people wearing weird clothes everywhere and there were huge buildings all pushed together, that seemed to be reaching for the sky. I was standing on a mechanical bridge leading into the heart of the city. And everything looked like it was in FMV, including me. I knew this place.

"Zanarkand…" I breathed

"Correct." I heard a voice from behind me, and spun around to see the Bevelle Fayth.

"Why am I here? Wait, HOW am I here? This is just a video game…right?"

The Fayth just shook his head "Yes and no. Spira is as real as your world is. And yet your world is not real here, just as Spira is not real in your world."

I thought about this or a moment, keeping my sight on a frozen person with totally fake red hair. "I think I get it…but why am I here? Didn't I just get run over?"

"You said you could create a better ending for Spira, so prove it."

"Are you NUTS! How do you expect me, no matter how wonderful you may THINK I am, to survive in this world without becoming FIEND FOOD in, like, 5 MINUTES!"

The Fayth pointed to one of the buildings "Stop whining. Go and watch some blitzball while you can." And that was all he said before he faded away.

"Wait, you….grr…dang it!" Some people, now unfrozen, turned to see who was shouting, but I just walked away quickly.

As I walked along the street to the blitz stadium I watched the people going by. There were young couples walking hand in hand just enjoying each others company, in their own little world. A father was taking his little boys towards the blitz stadium, most likely seeing one of their first blitzball games ever. A couple of kids ran by me, each holding a different colored ball, giggling. I stopped walking. All of these people were going to die. This was different than the game…this was real. These people looked happy now but soon they would scream in terror. I shivered slightly, started walking again and shook my head. It was depressing thinking that I could do nothing to save these people…these dreams…

I stopped abruptly. I was in front of the stadium and it sounded like the game had already started. 'Maybe watching some blitzball will cheer me up. Watch the game, have some popcorn…at least until Sin comes.'

But wouldn't you know it? The screams started. People came rushing out of the stadium so fast that I was knocked over in the rush of it all. I struggled to get back up as people tried to run over me. I succeeded…just to have a piece of collapsing building fall right in front of me. I yelped and scooted back but I tripped over something in the process.

"Oww…why do I keep falling on my butt today!...I wanted some popcorn too…Do they even HAVE popcorn here?" I grumbled and questioned as I looked to see what I tripped on.

'Oops…' It was Tidus. I got myself up, AGAIN and tried to wake him up.

"Umm…" I started to poke him repetitively "Hello in there…Wakey wakey eggs and bacy…" After 20 more pokes (Boy he's a heavy sleeper) Tidus started to stir.

'Finally!' I mentally celebrated in my head as Tidus opened his eyes to see…well, me.

He blinked a few times and then asked "Who are you? And can you move you head please?"

"Hee hee…" I stood up and helped Tidus stand "I'm Jemma, the tenth wonder of the floral universe, nice to meet you!" I gave him a friendly smile.

"My name is Tidus…" He gave me a veeeery weirded out look (you know the one I'm talking about…) and looked around and something, or should I say someone (A/N Ten points to the next person who can guess who…) caught his eye.

"Auron!" He ran over to a man in a red coat, a.k.a. Auron. I followed him well…because I wanted to live and there was no where else to go that wasn't falling apart. I liked that first reason better.

"What are you doing here?" Tidus asked, as I walked up next to him.

I said "He was waiting for you." At the same time he said "I was waiting for you."

I started giggling, but quickly shut up, because Auron gave me a 'Single eye Evil eye', as I have dubbed it. I looked down to avoid it and started twiddling my fingers.

"_Who _are _you_?"

Before I could answer, Tidus decided that he would be me and answer. "Her name is Jemma, the tenth…something. She…well…woke me up." I face-palmed. It just sounded so stupid to say it like that. Mental note to self: Make Tidus practice introduction until he starts to cry. Auron just grunted and started to walk away. Tidus, being the idiot that he was at the moment, just watched him.

I poked him in the side. "Well let's follow him." I started to jog away as Tidus snapped out of his trance.

"Er, right!" He jogged next to me as we…lost sight of Auron. Tidus and I stopped and looked around for him.

"Oh…how the heck can he walk so fast!" I panted out "He was walking, for Pete's sake!"

"Who's Pete?" I nearly fell over from the stupidity of that question.

"It's an expression, stupid!"

I felt a sort of ripple go through the air as everyone froze again. I turned around to see the Bevelle Fayth (A/N I'm going to call him just Fayth from now on) talking to Tidus. After he was done he disappeared. Tidus looked back to me looking at the spot where the Fayth was.

"Did you see him too?"

"…nope you're going crazy…" Just before Tidus could argue, a very large katana came in between us. I squeaked and took a step back.

Auron glared at us for being too slow to keep up and turned his sight to the sky. "We call it 'Sin'." Tidus and I followed his sight. I gasped. Jecht got BIG! Sin looked A LOT bigger in person than on a T.V. screen, even more so than I imagined.

"…Dude…one too many fries…" Auron glanced at me…and when I say glanced, I mean glared.

Then a whole bunch of little scales came flying towards us. They all landed at random places around us and opened up into Sin scales. I backed towards Auron as Tidus tried to fight them off bare-handed. He failed miserably and Auron handed him Longsword. Tidus took it and fell over from the weight of it.

"A gift from 'Jecht'."

"My old man?"

As they got into fighting stance, I picked up two broken metal bar pieces that I assumed came from the bridge. I twirled them around just like Rikku from FFX-2 does in the YRP pose. Auron and Tidus just gave me a look that said 'what are you gonna do with those…smack them to death?' I gave them a smirk and ran up to one of the scales, hitting it several times as hard as I could.

'Till the day I end up 6 feet under, I will never forget when the stupid thing reacted to my awesome battle moves…it...flinched. As I openly gaped at the 'in-destructible fiend', I could hear Tidus trying real hard to keep from laugh…only not hard enough. Auron grabbed my shoulder and 'guided me' to the back of the fight.

I stumbled a little and turned to shout at him, but before I could, all he said was "Keep out of this."

Then a scale came up from behind me a scratched me "OW!" I looked down and saw that the stupid thing RIPPED my FAVORITE shirt! I gave my primitive battle cry and proceeded to whack the thing over and over again until Tidus came over to stop me and give me a potion to stop the bleeding that I didn't even notice (I know it SEEMS stupid to care about a shirt so much and ignore injuries but I love that thing and I made it myself…), staring at me with a slightly fearful look.

As we fought (and when I say we I mean Auron and Tidus fighting, me cheering…sorta), the Sinspawn Ammes came down and landed behind us. I gracefully…fell down on my butt again, while Tidus stumbled and Auron just turned around, seemingly unfazed. I got up again only to get Demi-ed with the rest of the group. We fought it for a while, not making huge progress in defeating it, when we got Demi-ed three more times. We were all looking a little beat up (especially the newbie's a.k.a. me and Tidus).I racked my brain for ideas as Auron and Tidus fought it.

I got it "Auron, use Dragon Fang!" He looked slightly surprised but nodded. Tidus, catching on quickly, decided to use Spiral Cut on Ammes and all of the glowing light tentacles faded into pyreflies. I took this chance to stab the now weaker Sinspawn several times until it collapsed into pyreflies as well. I ran up to join the boys, as I so lovingly dubbed them, and saw that they were…sinking? I slowed down, a dawning realization on my face, and looked up. Sin was right on top of us. My mouth adopted and 'o' shape. Sin was reeeeealllly bigger that I thought he would be. I heard Auron talk to Jecht/Sin and he then proceeded to lift Tidus up by his collar. I walked up, yes walked, to them just as Auron said "This is your story."

I felt a weird cool feeling as we all got sucked up into Sin. It was not really soothing, but it made me…un-feeling, sort of. Like I didn't care about anything at all anymore. I just didn't feel. I was like the white around me…blank.

Although I didn't feel anything, I thought about many things. Like how nice it would be to have some items instead of just the clothes on my back and how I came to be here in the first place. It seemed like forever and yet only a little while that I was there. I could sense that Tidus was also there but I could not reach him, so I just decided to close my eyes and think some more.

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**Me:** This one had more changes that the first one sooo...(looks over at readers)...what did ya think?

**Auron:** What makes you think that they even read it?

**Me:** Auron...(sniff)...that was mean...

**Auron:** (looks on at unfolding scene uncaringly)

**Me:** ...well...NO COOKIE FOR YOU! (snatches away plate full of special cookies that have 'FFX' written on them in frosing)

**Auron:** (looks on AGAIN at unfolding scene uncaringly)

**Me:** Hmm...or Tidus...

**Tidus:** WHAT! NOOOOOOOO! AURON HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME! (grabs Aurons coat and sobs uncontrollablyonto it)

**Auron:** (gives authoress 'Single eye Evil eye')

**Me:** (grins triumphantly) Well...as always...R&R!


	3. Fat fish, Fire, and FiendsOh my!

**Me:** This one changed MUCH more than the other ones! YAY! well...I don't really have that much to say here...again...soooooo (brings out brownies with pics of FFX characters on them) Grab a brownie and enjoy the ride...I mean chapter...yeah...

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**Chapter 3: Fat fish, Fire, and Fiends...Oh my!**

I didn't know when the whiteness left, but I remembered feeling the presence of someone beside Tidus there.

'Jecht?' I wondered as I was aroused from my sleep by the gentle, yet chilling, waves washing over me and the rock that I was laying face down on. I groaned slightly, as I tried to move my aching limbs.

'Oh boy…' I thought 'I'm going to feel like this for a long, and when I say long, I mean LOOOOONG time…'.

As I tried to lift my self from my laying down position only to have a large wave push me back down. 'Tysh ed…' I thought as I ended up even colder, if that was possible.

I sighed as I felt my hand brush up against something. I looked up to see a black belt with a few compartments on it right next to my right hand on the rock. Confused, I reached out to grasp it away from the waters reach. It sort of looked like the ones that Yuna and Rikku had from FFX-2, so because I needed some place to store items and because no one else was there to claim it, I took it. I thought that I could here a brief 'You're welcome.' but I just shook it off as sheer craziness.

I tried to stand up again, since everything and everyone was trying to knock me down recently, and succeeded! I was so happy that I grinned. That's when I realized that I was alone. I looked around but I couldn't see Tidus anywhere. 'OMG!' I thought 'He went on without me! Or maybe this isn't really Baaj Temple…' I looked at the huge temple that you couldn't miss. 'Nope, that's it all right…where is he!' I was really starting to panic when I heard someone yell "Heeeeeeeyyy!"

I was so relieved I shouted back "Heeeeeeyyy to you too!"

I heard a splash sound and saw that a figure was swimming towards me. I jumped and waved, ignoring my protesting muscles. "Tidus!" I yelled. While he was making his way over, I put on the belt over my very soggy jeans and waited. Just when I could almost make out a face, the figure disappeared under the water. I just stood there shocked and confused, and a little ticked.

"What the hell is he thinking!" I shouted angrily to no one in particular. I strained my eyes trying to see if he was still there when a HUGE fish monster jumped out and tried to bite me on the leg.

"WTF! Ahhh!" It leapt out again and was now standing on another rock very close. I tried to get away from it by swimming away. Big mistake. The fish monster, now in its element, caught up to me within second and attached itself to my leg. I screamed as I tried to shake it off my leg. Another big mistake. As soon as I stopped swimming the creature started to pull me under the water. As my head submerged I frantically tried to break the surface, but the creature was stronger and just kept dragging me under. I was starting to see blackness on the edges of my vision as I ran out of air. I opened my mouth as a last desperate resort to scream as the last of my vision was fading. I heard a loud screech from below me and the water around me changed to a dark red color with bright lights swirling all around me. A pair of strong arm grabbed me around my waist and pulled me up to the surface. As I felt the air hit my face, I gasped, desperate for oxygen to fill my lungs. I was pushed up onto a rock as I tried to regain my strength.

Tidus climbed out after me, also gasping for breath. "Are…you O.K.?"

I nodded as I coughed a little and reached for a perfectly placed potion in my pack. He sighed and stretched his arms over his head.

"Thanks for saving me back there…" I said as I stood up next to him, shakily, but I stayed up this time.

"No problem." He looked over towards the temple "We should probably go over there…we might find something that can help us get out of here."

Before I could answer, he jumped into the water and swam away. 'Jerk…' I thought as I jumped in after him. I was scared when the fiend attacked, that I was sure of, but I didn't want Tidus to think of me as a problem so I swam after him.

As I tried to catch up to him, I thought about the game. I was missing something here, but I couldn't remember what…that is until Tidus shouted over to me.

"Heeey! There's something over here!" I climbed up onto the platform that he was standing on and saw the sign. 'Al Bhed!' I though excitedly, as I looked around for the chest with the gil in it. It was sitting just around the corner.

"Yesss!" I shouted in triumph as I pocketed the 200 gil into one of my pockets, apparently the pockets on my belt were much larger inside than out, for reasons unknown to me but I didn't worry about it. "Now I shall be able to buy Canada!"

Tidus ignored my new found wealth and crazed look while he looked at the Al Bhed' sign, trying to decipher its hidden meaning.

"Well, we had better go forward." He said after a few more seconds (the boy has a short attention span.) as he jumped back into the freezing water. I shivered and followed. We didn't talk much after that until we got to the bridge leading into the temple.

'Uh oh…' I thought as I remembered the creepy-fat-evil-stupid fish fiend, Geogenso, was waiting for us at the bottom of the unstable bridge. I backed up a little as Tidus went forward to collect the treasure chest adjacent to the bridge. Once he returned back to the main bridge and realized that I was not following, he turned back to me.

"What are you waiting for? Come on! We could find something in there that could help us." He motioned for me to follow him.

I grinned nervously and said "I'm coming; I just wanted to…tie my shoe!" I hoped that he would buy that sorry excuse and not look down to see that my shoes were…well…gone mostly.

He shrugged and waited for me to tie my shoe. "I'll wait for you."

'Crap…' "You can go on…I'll catch up." I smiled at him.

He shook his head. "What if another fiend comes and attacks you? You're not armed. You'll die." He frowned as I was mentally yelling. 'Damn it! Why did he have to go all oh-I'm-gonna-protect-you on me! Now I CAN'T let him fight alone…otherwise my conscience would eat away at me forever!...sigh…Tysh ed…' I sighed as I walked up next to him.

"Well, let's go." He stared at me funnily but shrugged my antics off and started walking along in front of me.

My heart was pounding. I knew what was going to happen and I REALLY didn't want to face another fiend but I had no choice…well I did but I would feel REALLY bad if I ran away and like Tidus said…I was sadly unarmed. I mentally smacked myself. What the hell was I thinking going into a battle that I knew was coming up unarmed? Before I could ask Tidus if he had something that I could use as a little weapon, everything shook.

"Whoa!" I heard Tidus yell as we plummeted into the icy cold water.

I broke the surface with Tidus right behind me. I shivered. "C-c-COLD!" I yelled.

Tidus looked up to see the broken bridge. He sighed in frustration and looked back at me "We'll have to find a way out of here…let's try over that way." He pointed over to a random spot towards the temple. I nodded and tried to keep me teeth from chattering. But then I felt something brush up against my leg. My eyes widened.

"Tidus…"

"Yeah Jemma?"

"Did you just touch my leg?"

He shook his head negatively as a fish-like creature jumped out of the water, sailing over both of our heads.

Tidus went "Whoa!"

I went "Not again!"

He then dived underneath the water to fight the three fiends that were waiting to munch on us. 'Aw crap!' I thought as I looked on to the battle that was going on underneath me. I swam over to the other side of the water and dived down.

The water was cold, but clear so I could see that Tidus still had two monsters left to kill. I looked around wildly for fatty cave and saw that he was trying to decide something. 'Probably who would be more filling Tidus or fishy…' I cringed at the thought. I felt light headed as I traveled back up for air. I quickly went back down under water and I saw that Tidus had just taken down another fish, only one left. But there was a problem. He was still attacking the last fish and Sir Eats-A-Lot was creeping up behind him.

'WTF!' Tidus was supposed to be swimming away right now and the fishy was supposed to be dead, but they were still fighting. I had to do something, so I did what the first stupid thing that came to mind. I screamed.

I got Tidus's attention but unfortunately for me, I also got fatty's. 'Uh oh…' I swam up as fast as my legs would allow me to and I just missed fatty's mouth as I broke the surface just in time for one quick breath of air. The current was too strong after that last attack and I was swept downward, rolling in the water a top speed. I hit a group of stray rocks finally and I tried to stop my head from spinning. When I got my vision back I saw that Tidus was swimming towards me and fatty was trying to get his head out of a wall. I swam towards Tidus and pointed in the direction of the temple, I hoped. He grabbed my hand and brought us both to the surface. I gasped for air as he dragged me over to where I pointed earlier. We just about made it when we heard a roar from beneath us. My adrenaline started pumping as I swam faster than I have in my entire life towards the entrance to the temple, even passing Tidus. (I did NOT wanna be fishy food!) It probably would have been comical to watch had I not been living in the horror filled moment.

Finally I reached the temple entrance and pulled myself through part way waiting for Tidus. He was almost by me but fatty was trying to suck him in. I grabbed a hold of the side of the wall and stuck my hand out as far as it would go and tried to grab him. He grabbed my hand as we both went tumbling in the building because of the water being sprayed into the tunnel we were in.

I tried to scream again but I was slammed against another wall. I grunted in pain as I rolled on to my side. 'Ow…' I mentally groaned as I opened my eyes trying to gain my bearings back. I grabbed onto the wall and shakily pulled myself up. I thought that a trip to Spira would be more fun that this…boy was I wrong. I looked around for Tidus to see if he was ok and saw that he was staring off into space. 'Poor Tidus…' I thought 'He probably feels horrible…for lack of a better word. His home was just destroyed before his eyes and a fish just tried to make a snack of him.'

I walked over to him and shook him a little. He jumped up but then calmed back down when he saw that it was me. I tried to smile a little and cheer him up and push his face up in a smile, but he just slapped my hand away, stood up and walked away. I was frustrated. 'He could at least TRY and smile. I am.' I angrily thought as I walked over to where he went.

I looked around and found myself in a large room, like the one in the game, but with no Tidus. 'He must have gone to get the stuff to make a fire with.' I decided to believe myself and so I sat down by the fire pit and waited for him to return.

A little while later he came back with the tinder and flint … "What took you so long, slave! I freezing my butt off here!", "Why didn't you come and help me then!", " 'Cuz you are my slave. Now work, knave!"… and started the fire. Warmth instantly spread over my body. I smiled and tried to get closer to the warmth. Tidus looked proud of his ability to make the fire and I just rolled my eyes.

"Bet you couldn't do that!"

I sighed and rolled my eyes again "Boys…" I mumbled.

He sat down across the fire from me and laid down.

'This seems familiar…'

I started a mental countdown. 5…4…3…2…1…

"I need food!"

I sighed again. I seemed to be sighing a lot lately. Ah well. It seemed like Tidus was taking his little nap so that left me with nothing to do but put a braid in his hair and think. I thought about the game and what was to come. 'Lessee…' I mentally listed the events that had occurred already 'Zanarkand, Sin, cold water, fat fish, fire,' "…fiend!" I shouted out that last part, without realizing it and Tidus jumped up from his nap and looked at me like I was insane. I thought that was funny, I don't know why but people seem to do that to me a lot, so I started laughing.

"Are you okay?" He looked genuinely scared and concerned at the same time, but that just made me realize that I was in a 'fake' world, because he was there, and I found that hilarious, so I laughed harder. I was rolling around on the floor with tears in my eyes while Tidus tried to scoot away farther from me.

I was in a world where my world didn't exist and my family…Suddenly I became very quiet. My family…did that mean that they didn't exist either…did I even exist? I sat up and stared into the fire. Could I ever go home again? Would I even want to? That last question scared me. I had always wanted to know what it would be like to live in a fantastical place, like Spira, now I had that chance. Did I really want to give it up?

I must have really scared Tidus before but he still came over to try and comfort me "Are you alright?"

I looked up to see his face etched in concern. Why he was even concerned about me? I'm just some girl who tripped over his unconscious body. Why did he care? I mentally sighed. It was his personality, care about strangers you hardly know but become a show-off when talking about blitzball.

I smiled up at him and said "Yeah, I'm just…FIEND!"

He looked at me confused "What?"

I pointed up the wall at a menacing looking Klikk. Lightning flashed as the Klikk crawled all over the wall and leapt. I grabbed Tidus and pulled him to the opposite side of the temple before the fiend could get us. Tidus jumped out in front of me, pulled out his weapon, and got into a fighting stance.

"Stand back!" Tidus ordered me. I was put out at being ordered around and went to look for something to defend my self with. 'With my luck right now as it is, I'll probably find another fiend and die.' Before I could find anything, I heard Tidus give out a pained scream.

I turned around, wide eyed, to see that Tidus was openly bleeding from a wound on his shoulder.

'Think, think, THINK!' I dug through my pockets to see if I had another potion. I found a few blue liquids in glass vials and my inner voice told me that they were potions…no, it wasn't the label.

"Tidus!" I yelled as I chucked a potion at him. Luckily for him, his reflex's kicked in before it hit his head and he nodded in my direction. I nodded back at him as he drank it and his injury disappeared. The fiend didn't look all that hurt and I now felt bad for making fun of Tidus while I was playing the game, 'cuz now that I was here I couldn't hurt it at ALL.

Keeping an eye on the battle, I went in search of something I could attack with. I didn't see anything but rocks and, well, more rock, so I decided to try my luck upstairs.

After tossing another potion to Tidus, I ran as fast as I could up the stairs and into the first room I saw and started searching as quickly as I could. I threw pieces of rocks at random places and pushed over a table that had been broken long ago. 'Nuts…' I thought. No luck in this room. I sprinted out into the damp hallway and into another room with a broken red door. I searched and searched, but all to no avail.

Swearing slightly, I began to head towards the hallway when there was a huge explosion.

'What the hell was that!' I thought about the game again……

"Arg!" I smacked myself for real this time. 'Of course.' I had totally forgotten about the Al Bhed coming in to excavate the temple for machina. I thought that my luck was finally turning around, until a tremor shook the inner temple.

Rocks fell from the ceiling and nearly landed on my head, squishing me flat.

"Whoa!" 'Tidus is a bad influence' I yelled/thought as I jumped out of the way and pressed myself against a wall so the rocks couldn't reach me.

I closed my eyes as more and more debris fell beside me. After what seemed like forever, the rumbling stopped and I opened my eyes…to see my only known exit blocked. My mouth hung there, slightly opened, and my eyes were wide and disbelieving. I was stuck…and the only thought that was going through my mind was 'Oh, cred…'

* * *

**Tidus:** ...But what happened to ME?

**Me:** You will just have to wait and find out in the next chapter. So...blaaarg.

**Tidus:** (looks around) Hey! Where'd Auron go?

**Me:** (rolls eyes) Have you already forgotten what happened in chapter two!

**Tidus:** ...Mebbe...

**Me:** (deadpanned)

**Tidus:** (twitches)

**Me:** (looks at random butterfly)

**Tidus:** (munches on brownie with pic of himself on it)

**Me:** O.o...okaaaay...R&R as always mah duckies!


	4. A Bad Situation

**Me:** Wow...it's been awhile hasn't it?

(An overwhelming "YES!!" is heard from the crowd.)

**Me:** (blown away by the voices) I know I've been a horrid fanfiction writer, yet I really do love you all...even though I haven't showed it in a long time...and when I say long, I mean **LONG!**

**Me:** To make it up to you, here is an extra super duper long chapter!! More than 5000 words! WOOT!!

(No other noise is heard while authoress celebrates)

**Me:** Aww...Come on guys...(is hit in face with old tomato)

**Me:** (wipes face with back of hand) Okay...I deserved that...but now, we must get on with the chapter. Than, afterwards, if you still feel like pelting me with old produce, then so be it!

**Me:** I would just like to say thank you to Baran3 for giving me a kick start with their review. I wouldn't have become inspired after such a long period of time without it. So...I hope I spell this right... _Merci beaucoup! Tu as aide moi beaucoup! _(I realize there is supposed to be an accent agu (sp?) on the 'e' in 'aide' but I don't know how to make it with my keyboard...(is computer challenged)

**Me:** So, please! Enjoy this chapter after the looooooong wait! (is hit in face with old banana peel)

**Me:** Ewww... By the by, this chapter is shown in two different points of view, Tidus' and Jemma's. This is only because they were seperated and I wanted to show you some of the small things that changed by her being there from the original game play. Yeah. It's special.

**Disclaimer-that-should-have-been-put-in-the-first-chapter:** I do not own anything FFX related, no matter how much I beg, plead, and/or grovel for it, besides my game and guide. And of course my absolute love for said game...What? You're saying I don't own that? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!! (sits in corner and cries)...(sniff) Oh yeah...I own Jemma as well. Yeah. That's impressive...

* * *

**Chapter 4: A Bad Situation**

"…No, no, no, no. This can't be happening…" I slowly made my way over to where the door used to be. It seemed like numerous rocks had fallen perfectly in the doorway, blocking off my only escape route. I placed my hand onto one of the larger pieces of debris, checking to see whether or not I was hallucinating. The hard, jagged surface told me I wasn't. This…was bad.

'Okay, Jemma. Don't panic. Just…look around for another escape route.' Swiveling my head around, I saw that there was in fact no other door, window, or hole in the wall I could walk/climb/crawl through. I was stuck.

I could feel the panic rise up in me as I stood there shaking, both from the cold and fear I was experiencing. I walked backwards into the wall and slid down onto the floor.

"This cannot be happening. It just can't. Nope. Not happening…" I muttered to myself.

Hugging my arms, I tried to think positively. 'Tidy will know that I'm somewhere around here. He'll come find me…'

'_Stupid! He gets taken captive by the Al Bhed, remember?_' The stupid voice of negativity in the back of my head kindly reminded me.

'Well, he could tell Rikku that there's someone other than himself in the temple.'

'_She knocks him out. sigh Have you really forgotten all of this?_'

'…He…could…'

'_Face it. You can't get out of here.'_

'…'

'_No one's going to come and rescue you. Certainly not Tidus.'_

'…'

'_You're going to d…_'

"Rrrgg…Shut up!!" I leapt up and placed my hands on either side of my head, trying to get rid of the negative thoughts rolling around in there.

Breathing slightly hard, I whipped my head up and glared in the direction of the door. I would NOT die in here. This is only the beginning. Only total newbie's die in the beginning and I was NO newbie.

Searching the room once more, I was disappointed to find that there was no useful tool I could use to dig myself out with, just a lot of small rocks. My face turned grim. I could only think of one way I could save myself…Gritting my teeth, I strode up to the pile of rocks and gripped one of the looser rocks with both hands and pulled. It didn't move too much at first, but once I wiggled it around a bit it came loose. I threw the rock behind me and went back to digging.

I started to think that perhaps gloves, such as the kind worn by Tidus, were not such a bad accessory to don, for digging yourself through a large pile of debris is not a fun activity with bare hands.

A little while later, I had made some progress and accomplished bloodying up my forearms and my hands, both of which stung like crazy. I thought about using a potion to ease my pain, but once I saw that there were only a couple left, I decided to save them for an emergency. Reaching up to grasp the next rock, I winced as I felt it touch my open wounds.

'I am sooo getting an infection…' I grimaced at the thought and prayed that if…no, when I got out of this god-forsaken room, I didn't die from an infection. That would just not be cool.

Finally removing the rock I was working on, I quickly figured out that I shouldn't have done that. As it turns out, that particular rock was supporting a whole BUNCH of rocks that proceeded to fall down upon the dent I made in the pile and on myself. Quickly covering my face with my arms and backing up, I felt the sharp edges of the rocks pierce my skin as they tumbled downward. Once the rocks stopped falling, I let my arms down and stared in horror at what was done. I could barely see that any progress had been made at all…it was like I hadn't even started digging!! I felt tears of frustration gather in my eyes as I glared at the source of my pain.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, on a ship out somewhere in the ocean…**_

"I'm not going to ask you again. What did you do with Jemma!?"

Tidus was very confused. First, he got knocked out be a girl who couldn't possibly be older than he was for no apparent reason and now he was on a strange ship in the middle of the ocean, being held captive by two guys with guns whom he couldn't even speak to, and Jemma was no where to be found.

"Crid ib, lybdeja!" (Shut up, captive!) One of the guards yelled at him.

Tidus was very frustrated.

Suddenly, the door to the inside of the ship opened and out came a man with lots of blue tattoos and…

'Hey, that's the girl who knocked me out!'

Tidus watched them as they came over. The man stopped in front of him.

"Caynlr res!" (Search him!) He yelled.

The girl that had knocked Tidus out came up behind him and dragged him to a standing position, keeping his left arm behind his back. The man then proceeded to make different motions that resembled swimming to an extent.

Tidus just glared at the man. "Where's my friend?"

The man looked confused. "Tu oui hud cbayg?" (Do you not speak?)

He then reached into one of his pockets and pulled out some goggles. He shoved them towards Tidus, trying to sign something once again.

"I don't understand what you're trying to say! Now, where's my friend?"

One of the guards turned red in the face. "Ehcumahla!" (Insolence!)

The girl behind Tidus put her hand out towards the guard. "Fyed!" (Wait!) She then turned to Tidus. "He said you can stay if you make yourself useful."

Tidus was stunned for a moment. "You…you understand me?"

The guard to Tidus' right elbowed him in the back of the head. Leaning forward slightly and clutching his head, Tidus growled out, "All right, I'll work!"

That seemed to satisfy the three men, so they backed off a little, still keeping a watch on Tidus. Tidus sighed and turned around to face the girl, who had let go of his arm.

"All right, since you can understand me, can you please tell me where my friend is?"

She looked confused. "What friend?"

"She was there with me in those ruins. She has long, brown hair and blue eyes and is…" He held his hand up to just under his chin. "This tall."

The girl continued looking at him, still confused. "There…wasn't anyone else there with you. We checked the temple…the only other living thing there was the fiend…Are you sure there was someone with you?"

Now it was Tidus' turn to look confused. Jemma _was_ with him there…right?

The man with all of the blue tattoos called out something to the girl and she nodded at him. Turning back to Tidus, she said, "Look, we've gotta get to work. After we're done, we talk more about what to do, okay?"

Furrowing his brows, Tidus slowly nodded. "…Alright…"

The girl nodded and smiled. "Good…Oh, almost forgot!"

* * *

"You…stupid…ROCKS!!" I yelled, having no better way to express my anger at the moment. 

It's times like these when you wish you had something soft to punch, like a maester…

The tears in my eyes were threatening to break though, but this was no time to be crying. I knew if I wanted to get out, I had to start over, and yet…My shoulders slumped forward as I hung my head. This was just…so hard. Why'd this have to happen, huh? Why wasn't I smart enough to stay with Tidus? How stupid could I be? Now, I'm probably going to die in this under-furnished, horrid looking room…My lower lip began to quiver and I sniffed. Looking up to once again glare and perhaps shout at my most hated inanimate objects, I saw something…different. Near the top of the pile, there was something which kind of resembled a hole. I got as close as I could to the bottom of the rock pile and peered upward, squinting my eyes. Yup, that was _definitely_ something that _could be_ a hole.

I clambered up the pile to see once again if I was seeing things. And once again, I wasn't.

Letting out a whoop of joy, I frantically began digging around the hole as if my life depended on it, which it kind of did.

The pain in my hands and arms intensified as I continued digging, but I could just feel that I was getting closer to freedom, making everything else inferior at the moment. The hole got larger and larger, which made me dig faster and faster.

Finally, after a minor rock slide (which thankfully didn't fall onto me), the hole was big enough for me to squeeze through. Mentally dancing, I placed my arms through the hole and began to crawl through.

'I'm gunna make it!' I sung in my head.

I pulled my head and shoulders through. 'I'm gunna make it!'

I pulled my torso through. 'Not gunna die! I'm gunna make it!'

I pulled, once again, to get my hips through. 'I'm gunna…' I paused as I realized I was no longer moving forward. Frowning, I tried grabbing onto some more rocks, pulling harder. Nothing. Horrified realization dawned on me as I slowly turned my head to look behind me. The worst possible thing to happen to a girl in my position just happened.

My. Hips. Were. Stuck.

Several curse words flew through my head as I mentally berated myself for eating all those extra sweets. Turning, I got the best grip I could on a couple of rocks and pulled with all my might.

'You are _so_ going on a diet when we get out of this!' I told my body.

Pulling harder, my hips began to scoot through slowly. Like snails pace slowly. But it was progress I suppose. My arms and hands were beginning to hurt from the strain of pulling. I wanted to relax so badly, but not while I was stuck in a hole in the wall. Staying like this would be just as bad as dressing myself in a meat suit, dancing around and singing, "Come and get me, Klikk!!"

I could hear a ringing in my head after that last thought. A mental picture of being eaten by fiends while stuck here popped into my head. I started to pull harder than ever.

Finally, I slid my hips out from the rocks. Before I could celebrate though, the rest of my body came out very quickly (i.e. my legs). Now while this may SOUND like a good thing, this event caused a domino effect which ended up with me rolling down the pile of rocks on the other side of the door and falling flat on my face.

"Ugh…" I moaned as I placed my hands on either side of me and pushed myself up. Sitting on my knees, I took a look around. I was free!!

* * *

_**Meanwhile, on that same ship…**_

Tidus was lying down on the cold deck of the ship, tired from fighting that big squid-like monster and hungry, having not eaten in who knows how long.

"Uhh…hungry." He moaned out loud to no one in particular. He could just imagine that the rest of the workers were downstairs with plenty of food, eating to their hearts content.

A kick to his arm shook him out of his hunger-induced daydream and he looked up to see the girl from before. She was carrying a tray with her and set it down in front of him. It was filled with what looked like the most delicious food, to Tidus at least.

Tidus quickly sat up. "Whoa! Right on!" He grabbed handfuls of the food and began eating as fast as he could. He was soooo hungry!

Fairly soon, he began to choke on some food that he swallowed too fast. Hitting his chest, he couldn't seem to get the food out of his throat. A canteen appeared in his vision, which he grabbed and began drinking heavily from.

The girl squatted down next to him. "It's 'cause you eat too fast!" she lightly scolded him.

Tidus gave her back her canteen and got up to stretch.

"Hey!" The girl stood up, slightly indignant at the brush off.

Tidus turned on her and said, "Hello there. What is your name?"

The girl tilted her head slightly and answered, "Rikku."

Tidus grinned widely and started shaking her hand frantically. "You really do understand!" He laughed. "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I didn't get a chance too! Everyone thought oui were a fiend." She explained.

Tidus was confused. "Uh…'we'?"

"Oh, 'oui' means 'you'."

Tidus raised an eyebrow at her explanation, clearly not understanding in the least. "Who are you guys, anyway?"

Rikku walked over to the side of the ship, explaining, "We're Al Bhed. Can't you tell?" She paused for a moment, then turned around to face Tidus. "Wait. You're not an Al Bhed-hater, are you?"

Tidus walked closer to her. "I don't even know what an Al Bhed is."

Rikku peered at him suspiciously, as if she had never heard that sort of answer before. "Where are you from?"

Tidus smiled proudly. "Zanarkand. I'm a blitzball player." He struck a pose and kicked an imaginary blitzball into the distance. "Star player of the Zanarkand Abes!"

She stared at him strangely. "Did you…hit your head or something?"

He gave her a deadpanned look. "Um, you guys hit me."

Rikku flushed slightly. "Oh, right... Do you remember anything before that?"

Tidus walked up next to her and began explaining everything that had happened from the blitzball match onward, adding in facts about life in Zanarkand when they came to mind.

Rikku was very quiet throughout his whole tale. Once he finished, Tidus saw her troubled face and got an uneasy feeling. "Did I say something funny?"

She looked away grimly. "You were near Sin."

Tidus nodded. "Mmm-hmm."

Rikku nodded forcefully. "Don't worry," she assured Tidus, "you'll be better in no time. They say your head gets funny when Sin is near. Maybe you just had some kind of dream?"

"You mean I'm sick?" Tidus was dumbstruck.

Rikku nodded once again. "Because of Sin's toxin, yeah."

Tidus wasn't so sure. "You sure?"

"Yeah, there is no Zanarkand anymore." Rikku replied with certainty. "Sin destroyed it a thousand years ago. So...no one plays blitzball there."

Tidus felt a coldness seep into his body. 'What…'

"Huh? What you do mean a thousand years ago? But I saw Sin attack Zanarkand! You're saying that happened a thousand years ago?"

Tidus shook his head. "No way! What about Jemma?! She saw Sin's attack too!"

"I told you before…" Rikku replied, "There wasn't anyone else in the temple…"

"I know she was there. She's probably **still** there. Are you sure you checked everywhere?" Tidus knew he sounded crazy, even to himself, but he just couldn't give up…

Rikku looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Well…" Tidus listened eagerly "There were a few areas that were blocked off, but we didn't need to go into those areas anyway…sooo…maybe she was in one of those areas?" Rikku trailed off uncertainly.

"See!" Tidus exclaimed excitedly. "Will you take me back then? So that we can find her? Then she can tell you about Zanarkand too!"

Rikku was silent for a few moments. Then she softly said, "You said... You play blitzball?"

"Uh-huh." He nodded, slightly impatient.

She looked thoughtful again. "You know, you should go to Luca. Someone might know who you are, or you might find someone you recognize."

"Luca? But what about Jemma?"

Rikku nodded with certainty and stepped away from the side of the ship. "Okay, leave it to me! We'll go back to the ruins and get your friend then I'll get you two to Luca, promise!"

Tidus quietly considered her offer. He wanted to go and get Jemma, so she could prove his story about Zanarkand to Rikku and to make sure she was safe. But he wasn't sure about this Luca place…

Rikku scoffed at him. "You'd rather stay here?"

Tidus replied quickly with an "Uh-uh!" Rikku was okay, but there was no way he was staying around those other guys for longer than he had to.

Rikku smiled at his quick response. "Okay, I'll go tell the others. Wait here. Oh, and one thing." She faced him, her features serious. "Don't tell anyone you're from Zanarkand, okay? Yevon says it's a holy place. You might upset someone." And with that she ran off to go and tell the rest of the crew her plan.

'My Zanarkand, some kind of holy place?' Tidus thought sarcastically. 'Yeah right. Since when?'

He leaned against a couple of storage boxes. 'Yevon? Sin? Luca?' Tidus' thought were swirling around his head. He couldn't believe it. He thought that Sin had just swept him away somewhere, where he could return to Zanarkand fairly soon, but…

'A thousand years into the future?'

He stood and turned towards the boxes, exclaiming, "No way!"

To let out some of his frustration, he kicked the boxes, not really expecting anything to happen.

Suddenly there was a strong vibration coming from the water that shook the whole ship, making Tidus stumble around. The two guards from before came out of the door.

One of them shouted out something Tidus found quite familiar. "Sin!"

Another one yelled in a panicked voice while leaning over the edge. "Sin ec lusa!" (Sin is come!)

A third Al Bhed ran out from the doorway, carrying his weapon. "Ihtan ic! Ihtan ic!" (Under us! Under us!)

A large vibration shook the ship again, throwing Tidus off balance this time. He slid off the deck and into the dark, foreboding water below.

* * *

Scrambling to my feet, I began to run away from that horrid room and back into the center one where Tidus and I sat down and had our little campfire. 

How much time had passed, I wondered. Would Tidus still be there? Though the honest part of me would guess 'Of course not, you dimwit!' I figured lying to myself would make me feel better at the moment. Stomping down the stairs, I nearly slid into another wall as I turned the corner into the main area.

Stilling my pace, I saw that there wasn't anyone there. No Tidus, no Rikku, no useless Al Bhed gun wielders…I was all alone. I walked over to where the fire had been. I looked pretty dead. I squatted down and touched the charred wood. It was pretty cold too. Too bad I couldn't tell how long ago they had left by how cold the fire was. That was a bummer.

Shaking out of my reverie, I stood and ran over to the make shift door that the Al Bhed used, which was basically a hole blown in the wall.

'I wish I had their explosives upstairs when I needed to make a hole…It would have gone so much faster…' Ah well, it was pointless to think about that now. It was a pretty big hole though…

'Note to self: Don't piss off the Al Bhed. They have the ability to make things go "Ka-BOOM!!!!"'

Running through the hole in the wall, which was much better then crawling by the way, I came face to face with the storm that seemed to plague this abandoned temple.

'I wonder if the storm is Anima's doing…Hmm…I shall have to figure that out later when I come back with the gang.'

That thought brought another problem to mind: How was I supposed to join up with Tidus and, by association, everyone else if I was stuck here at Baaj temple?! Thinking hard, I groaned in frustration. By now I was thoroughly soaked to the proverbial bone and quite without any ideas to get off this temple/island…thingy.

"Maybe, I could get some of the larger wooden piece and make a raft…" I muttered to myself. Of course I had never built anything like a raft in any size, but I'm sure the circumstances would make me a quick learner. Plus the fact that this was the only semi-decent idea I could come up with…Thinking, though, on the idea of me on a raft, alone, in the middle of who knows' where, surrounded by fiends, with no weapon…I began to see the futility of my semi-plan.

Feeling very weak all of the sudden, I collapsed onto my knees, staring out at the stormy ocean.

So there I was: Trapped in the middle of the ocean, soaking wet, all alone, with no protection. Things were really starting to look hopeless.

'I should have stayed with Tidy. I should have…'

"**You're a useless one, aren't you?" **a disgusted voice spoke out.

My head whipped around, trying to locate the source of the voice that just spoke.

I slowly stood up and spoke, "W-who…who's there?"

The only response I received was the howling of the wind.

"Ooo-kaaaay…" I was officially going nuts…not that I wasn't before, but…

Suddenly, my head felt like it was full of air and my body collapse into a heap on the cold, wet ground. Breathing felt like a chore and my vision darkened. Just before I blacked out, I could have sworn I heard someone say, **"If she keeps this up, I'll just have to do things myself."**

* * *

_**On a beach somewhere…**_

Tidus slowly made his way over to where Wakka was waiting to take him to the village.

'Finally, I'm going to get something to eat…' The very thought of food made his stomach growl.

Finally reaching the red headed man, a thought popped into Tidus' head.

'Why not…?' He wondered. Wakka seemed like a trustworthy guy.

"Hey Wakka…"

"Ya?" Wakka replied

Tidus shuffled his feet slightly. "It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right?" He mentally shuddered at the thought. "A thousand years ago? So it's just a big pile of rubble now, isn't it?" It really felt weird calling his Zanarkand a 'pile of rubble'.

Wakka looked at him seriously. "Long time ago, there were a whole lot of cities in Spira. Big cities with machina-machines-to run 'em. People played all day and let the machina do the work. And then, well, take a look." He gestured over to the ruins that surrounded them.

"Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities. And Zanarkand along with 'em." He thought for a second. "Yeah, that was about a thousand years ago, just like you said."

He turned towards Tidus again, who looked confused, yet saddened. "If you asked me, Sin's our punishment for letting things get out of hand. What gets me, though..." Wakka looked very annoyed as he spoke this, "…is we gotta suffer, 'cause of what some goofballs did way back when!"

Wakka took a breath to calm himself down. "'Course, we must always repent for our sins! That's important! It's just that, it's hard to keep at it sometimes, you know?" He looked over towards Tidus for conformation.

Tidus was deep in thought. It was just like Rikku said. Wakka and Rikku couldn't both be lying. Why would they?

Wakka let out a deep laugh and placed Tidus in a headlock. "But you from the Zanarkand Abes-that was a good one! Hey, I'm not saying the team never existed, ya? But you gotta figure a team livin' in luxury like that'd be pretty soft, eh?" He snickered at his joke.

Tidus smiled half-heartedly. He really did appreciate the fact that Wakka was trying to cheer him up, but all he could think about was Sin. Everything that happened to

him-all this-started with Sin. Maybe if he could find Sin one more time, he could

go home! Tidus got excited at the prospect of being in a familiar setting again surrounded by his friends and fans. But there wasn't anything he could do about it now. It would be best for him not to worry about where, or even when, he was. Sure it was hard for him not to think of home. But figuring out a plan of action made him feel better already. A little better…maybe.

He walked alongside Wakka as they strode towards the village.

"Hey, Wakka?"

"Ya, brudda?"

"There…" Tidus knew it would be a long shot, but he had to ask. "Was there anyone else that you found by the beach? A girl, maybe?"

Wakka thought for a moment and scratched his chin. "No, I don't think so...Try asking someone else once we get to the village, alright?"

Tidus nodded and continued to follow him. 'I just hope that Rikku and Jemma are alright…'

* * *

The first thing I remember waking up to was a bright light. I had to quickly shut my eyes to avoid becoming blinded. 

'Ugh…what happened?' My body kept moving up and down all by itself.

'Oh wait, it's just the water bobbing me up and down…'

Pausing briefly to take in all of these new happenings, I wondered, 'How did I end up here? Where's the storm? What happened?'

Feeling slightly panicked, I opened my eyes again, slower this time to avoid the bright light.

Bright light…

'Oh my god, I'm dead.' This wasn't good. 'Noooo!!! I can't die yet!! I haven't punched Seymour yet! This isn't fair!! I won't go towards the light, I won't!!'

After that, I firmly shut my eyes. I wasn't going to go down that easily.

I heard some noises coming towards me, though I couldn't make any of them out, and I panicked some more.

'Oh god! The demons are coming to take my soul to Satan! I knew this day would come!'

While I was debating about whether I should try and out swim them or stay and punch my way through the demon hordes, I heard a loud, male voice shout, "Someone's in the water!!"

Loud footsteps sounded as I assume other 'demons' came to see what he was talking about.

"You're right! There's a girl in there." A woman this time.

"Someone jump in there and save her!" Hmm, an accented male voice. I didn't know demons had different accents.

I heard a loud splash, followed by the sound of someone swimming towards me. I was mentally preparing myself to fight when a strong arm grabbed me around the waist.

"Don't worry." I heard someone say in a slight UK accent. I'm assuming it was the guy who yelled out that I was in the water. They did sound alike… "I've got you."

I tried to struggle out of his arm, but found to my alarm that I could not move. 'Ah, cred…'

I was drug through the water for a while, slightly opening my eyes to see if I could spot anything. All I saw was water EVERYWHERE.

The man holding onto me stopped suddenly and I shut my eyes quickly. If they didn't know I was awake I would have the element of surprise on my side.

'Heh, foolish mortals.' I thought maniacally, fully aware that I was just about as mortal as they were. At least I was beginning to think so, they could still be demons after my soul after all.

The man pulled us both up and out of the water slightly, grabbing onto what seemed like, as far as my squinty eyes could see, a rope ladder. Lifting me up further than himself, he handed me into the arms of someone else. I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable being passed around like a bad bowl of potato salad at a family reunion. Who knows where I would end up next. On the floor?

After that thought I was placed onto a hard, perhaps wooden, surface. Otherwise known as the floor.

'…Now make me your queen…and give me pudding…'

I could feel that there were several beings (the jury's still out on the species issue) and someone knelt down next me.

They paused for a moment. Finally they said, "She's still breathing. It's shallow, but I think she'll be okay."

'I'm aliiii-iiiive!!!' This was a happy moment. In weird circumstances, yes, but a happy moment none the less!

"I'll try and clear out her lungs…" I felt myself being turned on my side, away from the person speaking. They then proceeded to hit my back several times with the palm of their hand. I couldn't help but cough out some of the water that had apparently made it into my lungs.

'Wow…that actually made me feel better…' I was then turned onto my back again as I moaned and automatically opened my eyes. I really didn't mean to open them, as I was still vying for the element of surprise, but what I saw made me feel hundreds of times better.

I was surrounded by three or four humans, not demons. I couldn't see them all that well, but at least I felt safer than I had. Losing energy fast, my eyes began to droop while the people around me conversed.

"She'll be alright now. She just needs to rest for awhile."

"Poor thing…Do you think that…"

"Yeah, Sin probably got to her."

"Anyway, let's get her down below, Kenta…"

Sin? I'm still in Spira?

'That's good...I think…' I thought before I passed out…again.

* * *

_**Tidus' Dream…**_

Tidus was sitting on the Besaid Island dock for some reason. He couldn't remember why, so he decided to get up and try and find out. Looking around, he spotted Yuna standing at the other end of the dock. Walking over towards her, he asked, "Where's that boat?"

Yuna looked out to sea and responded in a worried voice, "Everyone will find us if it doesn't come soon."

Though he wasn't sure exactly what was going on, Tidus decided to go along with it. "You really sure this is okay?"

Yuna turned her pretty mismatched colored eyes towards him. "Would you take me to Zanarkand?"

Suddenly, Rikku appeared at the other end of the dock and ran towards them. Pointing at Tidus, who was now jogging in place for some reason, she exclaimed, "Hey! You'd said you'd go with me!"

Tidus was at a loss for what to say. "Oh, hey...I, uh..."

"What about me, Tidus?" Jemma ran up next to Yuna, looking hurt. "I thought we would be going back together?" Her eyes pleaded with him.

Tidus was beginning to get really confused. "Yeah, of course…but…uhh…"

Rikku glared at him. "I thought Wakka told you not to get any ideas?"

Yuna looked surprised. "He did?"

Rikku nodded once. "Yeah, so you're coming with me!"

Jemma frowned. "No, you're coming back with me!"

"Hey! Stop dreaming!" His father's voice boomed out from somewhere.

Jecht appeared across from the dock on the beach, Yuna and Jemma on his right and Rikku on his left.

Jecht scoffed at his son. "You with a woman? You can't even catch a ball!"

His father's voice turned taunting. "Oh, what's the matter? Gonna cry again? Cry, cry. That's the only thing you're good for."

Tidus somehow transformed into his younger self. He hung his head down and muttered, "I hate you."

Jecht cupped his hand next to his ear. "Huh? What'd you say?"

"You have to speak loudly." Yuna told him gently.

Tidus lifted up his head and glared at his old man. "I hate you!"

"Eh?" was how Jecht replied, still apparently not hearing his son.

Rikku jumped up and down a little. "That's the spirit!" she said in a peppy voice.

"You can do it!" Jemma said.

And in a flash of white, Tidus sat up in his temporary bed and yelled, "I hate you!"

Breathing hard from the anger he had just experienced, he realized he had just been dreaming.

He sat up slightly as he heard a voice outside the tent. Sliding off the bed, he went to go check it out.

* * *

**Me:** Whew! What a ride! I just hate cliff-hangers, don't you? (smiles cheekily) 

**Jemma:** You're horrid, you know that, right?

**Me:** What are _you_ doing here?!

**Jemma:** You brought me here stupid.

**Me:** Oh...(shifty eyes)

**Jemma:** (confused) Where's Tidus? He was in this chapter...he should be here...

**Me:** True...but he wasn't in _your_ part of the chapter.

**Jemma:** So, what? Are you stalking me or something?

**Me:** (dressed in moogle outfit from FFX-2) (muffled) ...Or something...

**Jemma:** O.O (backs away slowly) ...Right...

**Me:** Ahem...anyways, I already have the next eight chapters planned out so there should not be a long wait like last time. I'm motivated now! WOOT!!

As always, duckies...R&R!!!


	5. Bad puns and even worse references

**Me:** Two updates in less than a week? Inconceivable!! (Whoever catches the reference wins this shiny piece of foiiillllll…) Plus the fact that this is the longest chapter yet, 6000 plus words! Wo-ow…

**Me:** I was actually inspired by Alyss, who reviewed uber-quickly. Plus the fact that I'm home sick right now typing this helped to speed the process. Heh.

**Me:** I shall not take this opportunity to respond to a few questions/comments made by Baran3 that I meant to respond to in the last chapter. First off, the reason that Jemma couldn't hurt the Sinscale back in chapter 2 was because she is kind of weak. Wakka on the other hand, while also using blunt attacks, has played blitzball for many years, eventually making him able to throw the ball really, _really_ fast, both on land and in the water, making a hit from his blitzball quite forceful and painful. At least that was my reasoning.

**Me:** Seondly, I'm afraid to say that the beat-down she preformed on the Sinscale was not her Overdrive (though I did think about it for awhile). You'll get to see her overdrive in the next chapter hopefully. Yup!

**Me:** Lastly, Jemma was panicked and lacks the mental capacity to realize that she could have used the rocks around her as a distraction. So she just ran around like a chicken with her head cut off. Yeah, she's smart…

(An indignant "Hey!" can be heard from within the chapter)

**Me**: Hee…I put in something after this chapter that had been deleted when I made all those changes to the first three chapters. This is for you Fantasy Girl7!

**Me:** Oh! Almost forgot! A little fun fact to keep you entertained for a little while. All of the characters mentioned in this chapter were really in the game, go check it out. They didn't have any names though, so I gave them some. Roshan means 'Shining Light', Belindo means 'Dragon', and Kenta is just a name I pulled out of thin air! (grins)

**Me:** Now…Please keep your hand and feet inside the chapter at all times. Enjoy the ride!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Bad puns and even worse references**

'I feel warm…' was the thought that popped into my mind as I slowly became aware of myself again. I was confused, disoriented, and extremely hungry.

'Need…food…' My stomach growled loudly at the thought. Yup, Tidus was a VERY bad influence. My stomach grumbled as I blearily opened my eyes.

Sitting up from the make-shift sleeping bag I was on, which was really just a bunch of blankets, I looked at my surroundings. It looked like I was in a sort of cabin setting. There were some wooden boxes around me and more blankets hanging from the ceiling. A couple of shelves on the wall held some odd looking bottles and other objects. No one else was there with me, so the room was rather quiet…

'How did I get here?' I thought back to everything that had happen over the past…however long it had been. 'Lesse…I was walking to school with Gwenie…then that kid showed up in the middle of the street and I tried to grab him but…' Furrowing my brows, I found that I couldn't remember anything for awhile after that.

'That's weird…' I thought. 'Well, easy come, easy go…' I lied back down and placed my arms underneath my head. 'Now what came after that…Oh, yeah!' I smiled. 'I was at Zanarkand and I tripped over Tidy! Got sucked into Sin, went to Baaj, almost got eaten several times…'

I frowned suddenly, thinking of my imprisonment, escape, and feelings of hopelessness… 'But what in Spira happened after that?!' I just couldn't figure it out. I seemed to recall floating in the water…but that could just have been a dream…

"Oh! You're awake!"

I bolted up right as soon as I heard the voice coming from the doorway in front of me. There was a girl standing there in the brightest outfit I had ever seen on a person, barring cartoon characters. Her brunette hair was covered up by a purple bandana, which was really the most normal part of her outfit. Dressed in vertically stripped sunshine yellow and purple slacks and matching colored tops, I had to keep from staring at her with my eyes bugged out.

'My eyes!!! My beautiful blue eyes!!!' I screamed in my head. The girl smiled at me and closed the door behind her.

"We weren't sure if you were going to wake up before we docked." She came over and sat down on one of the crates next to me. "My name's Roshan. Pleased to meet you." She smiled at me and held out her hand.

I looked at her hand and slowly grasped it. She seemed like an okay person…not like a cannibal…not that I've met any cannibals, but I think you'd be able to tell if someone was one or not easily enough…or so I hoped.

Shaking her hand, I replied, "My name's Jemma…where are we?"

"We're on board the S.S. Liki! Right now we're in the cabin area, but once you feel up to it, you're free to explore the deck area."

I looked at her as she explained. The S.S. Liki? I was on board the S.S. Liki?! How did _that_ happen?

I must have looked confused, because she then explained, "We found you a few minutes after we set sail. You were just floating in the ocean when Kenta spotted you. You passed out once we brought you on board."

'Oh…' I still had no idea how I ended up anywhere NEAR civilization, even if I was still in the water, but I was very thankful that I did. Something was nagging me at the back of my head, like I had forgotten something. Before I could try and think on it though, Roshan's voice brought me out of my musings.

"Soo…" she started. "What happened? Why were you out in the middle of the ocean?"

Honesty is the best policy soo… "I really don't have any idea." It wasn't a total lie. I still told her the truth. I had no idea why I wasn't still at Baaj temple, really.

Her face turned grim. "Were you…attacked by Sin?"

An alarm went off in my head. To buy myself some time, I turned my head down and stared at my lap pretending to think. I had to respond fast with something believable. Not being creative enough myself, I decided to stick with the good ol' 'Sin's toxin' bit that seems to work so well around here.

"I…I can't remember…" Time for the show! I looked up, trying to make my face look lost and forlorn, which really isn't as hard as one may think. "I was with my friend and then there was this big explosion and…I don't know what happened next." Again, not a total lie. I just hoped that she'd buy my lame acting.

She gasped, looking sympathetic at my 'plight'. "You poor thing! It must've been Sin…Don't worry, I'm sure that if you look to Yevon for guidance, the toxin's will release their grip on you." She rested a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me.

I felt like a big jerk. 'Stupid conscience…' I muttered in my head.

"Is there anything I can get for you?" She really was a very caring person, I noted. Before I could answer, my stomach let out this loud, strangled half moan/half growl. Silence prevailed in the room of a few seconds. My face was completely pink, ears and all, by the time that Roshan began to laugh, trying very hard not to.

"So you're hungry, huh?" I looked down again, extremely embarrassed. "Don't worry about it. I'll go to the kitchens and see if I can find you something to eat." And with that she stood and walked out the door.

Alone in the room once more, I decided to get up and stretch my legs. Pushing off the blankets, I stood up, nearly losing my balance. Holding myself steady with the wall, I regained my composure. 'If I didn't know any better, I would say the floor is moving…Oh wait…I'm on a boat…Oooohhhh…'

Feeling a little more than stupid, I walked around a little, viewing my surroundings closer. I quickly noted that my shoes had been lost somewhere, though the loss was not too great as they could barley be called 'shoes' after the whole Baaj incident, and the rest of my clothes were still slightly damp. 'It must have been at least a little while since I was pulled out of the water.' Feeling slightly woozy with hunger, 'Fooooo-ooooood…', I made my was back to 'my' sleeping area. Before I sat down again, I spotted something in my peripheral vision.

It was a light brown suitcase that I knew all too well. It was the thing that gave you potions if you kicked it. A devilish grin crept onto my face. If I could take the potions in the game, why couldn't I do the same here? Before I could get up again though, my conscience pulled me back.

'Hey! What do you think you're doing?'

'Grabbing some potions. What'd you want!?' I was annoyed at my inner voice of reason. There was free stuff over there…

'You can't just do that!'

'Why not?!'

My inner voice huffed. 'That's _stealing_! It's _wrong_!'

'But…in the game you could get up to twenty potions! For free!! Who turns down free stuff?'

'But they're not _yours_! For all you know, it could belong to one of the people who saved your sorry butt.'

Ooo, didn't think about that. What if someone came in and was all like, 'Where are my potions?' And what if they needed those potions to cure their ailing child?!

'You'd feel even crappier than you do now.'

'Shut up…' I mentally flicked away my conscious, having already lost the battle. I plopped down onto my rear end and waited for Roshan to return.

I didn't have to wait long before she knocked on the door. Coming in with a tray of some delicious smelling stuff, she gave me a smile.

"Alright, I found you some food in the kitchen. It's not much, but at least it's something." She handed over the tray to me while I stared at it like I was going to unhinge my jaw and eat it whole. "There's also a potion on there for your scratches." I had completely forgotten about the scratches I had gotten from digging. No wonder she looked at me with such pity, I must look horrible! Like a drown rat that got on the wrong end of a cat's claws. Hmm…Ah well.

After quickly downing the potion, which healed my cuts very quickly, I started to dig into the food with the fork provided, which resembled noodles in meat and vegetable sauce and some bread. Roshan just smiled at my enthusiasm, probably just happy to help. Before I could forget, I looked up at her and said, "Thank you!" Or at least tried to. It came out more like, "Fang goo!" She giggled behind her hand and nodded, sitting down on the crate once more.

I finished all the food in, at the most, one and a half minutes, definitely a record. I rested my back against the wall and patted my belly. 'That was good…'

Another giggle. "Feeling better?

I nodded at Roshan and I handed her my tray, which was clean as a whistle by the way, which makes no sense because sometimes whistles are not very clean at all…Anyway…moving on.

Roshan stood up with the tray in hand. "I'm glad you like it. By the way, I noticed that your clothes were a little…battered." She was so not insulting that it was almost saintly. "So, I put some extra clothes for you over there." She pointed to a spot in the room on the other end which was surrounded by curtains. "They might be a little big…but it's better than wearing something wet, right?"

I nodded. 'Most definitely…You spoil me, Roshan...' "Thank you so much. You've taken such good care of me…"

She smiled and waved her hand. "Don't mention it. Yevon teaches us to help our fellow Spirian in times of hardship." A pang went through my heart, courtesy of my conscious. "I'm gonna go back to work, okay? Come visit me down in the Power Room when you get the chance. See you later!"

After she shut the door, I rose to go and check out the clothes that she left. I now felt like a horrible person for telling her half truths after she was so kind to me.

'That's it!' I thought. 'I'm gonna do something for her…But what?' Maybe I could learn some cool, bad-ass fighting moves and kick Sin's butt…The thought of Sin left me feeling slightly terrified. I wondered, if the events came to pass where I had to fight Sin, could I do it? A mental picture of Roshan flashed in my head. I would definitely have to try, and who knows? I could kick butt…maybe.

Shaking the thought out of my head for the moment, I picked up the clothes, slightly wary that they would also be as clashingly colorful as Roshan's outfit. There was a black tank top with a bright green, short-sleeved jacket to go over it. The jacket had some cool looking, dark green design on the back made up of swirls that seemed to form a circle.

'Sweet…' I thought as I shed my damp red shirt for these new tops. The jacket came to about halfway down my thigh before stopping. I the picked up the shorts she had left for me next. They were made out of a very light, dark orange material and felt nice to the touch. Slipping them on before re-clipping my belt o' magical things on, I tried to get a perspective on how they made me look. They fit okay and looked good enough, so I was satisfied. After finger combing my tangled mane, I picked up my jeans and red shirt, nearly tripping over some boots that were placed on the ground near the rest of the stuff. Roshan must have noticed my lack of shoes and placed them out for me. She was just too sweet! I slipped them on over my now-sorta-dry socks.

'Comfy…' I thought as I gently placed (threw) my other clothes near where I woke up. Now it was time to explore!

Opening the door slowly, I walked out into the hallway. Again, there wasn't anyone that I could see, so I walked out further. There were only a couple doors, the bigger of which, I saw, was being guarded by two guys who sorta glared/stared at me, as though I had done something wrong. Scooting away quickly, I decided that it was in my best interest to figure out where I was by going up on deck. After all, I still needed to find Tidy, and if the S.S. Liki was still running, that meant…

"Well, well, well. Look 'oo's up and about?" I had to restrain myself from screaming with surprise at the voice that came from behind me. Turning around I came face to face with a short-ish man with a very large green backpack. That's right. It was O'aka the XXIII.

I placed a hand to my throat. "Whoa! You scared me!"

"Sorry 'bout that." He replied, not looking very sorry at all. His face turned into one of pity. "Attacked by Sin, eh? Horrible. Absolutely horrible." He eyes looked a little distant. "Time's are hard, they are…"

I nodded at him as I tried to discreetly make my way towards the stairs. O'aka was just not really the person you wanted to talk to, game or no. He did get better as time went on in the game and he did have some good qualities, but I wasn't sure I wanted to converse with him right now…

He suddenly turned towards me, causing me to freeze in my tracks. "It can't be good for a young girl such as yourself to be wanderin' 'round without some sort of protection. How about a nice, O'aka weapon to protect yeself with?"

I pondered on his offer. If I were to get into a fight of some sort, it WOULD be good to have a weapon on hand, instead of having to search for one nearby… 'That's what got me into this mess in the first place.'

Having made up my mind, I said, "What have you got in mind?"

I could've sworn that he grew several inches and his smile reached his ears. "Have a look over here, miss!" He placed his hand onto my back and pushed me over to the corner near the stairs. There were a bunch of larger objects laid out on the floor or against the wall.

'I had no idea that he had a base setup here…' Funny what you find out once you actually _live_ the game.

He removed his hand and did a sweeping motion towards his 'merchandise'. "O'aka the XXIII at your service. There'll be no better merchandise anywhere in Spira." Somehow I highly doubted that. Glancing over the weapons anyway, even though I'm sure they were not as good as he said, I spotted a pair of daggers encased in simple sheaths.

'I could _totally_ use daggers…' "How much for those?"

He looked over to where I was pointing at. "Oh _those_! Miss, you have a fine eye, you do!" I rolled my eyes. "These daggers are made out of some of the strongest metals in Spira, sure to cut down any fiend in your path."

"How much?" I repeated, slightly annoyed by all of the 'salesman' vibes I was getting.

O'aka paused for just a brief moment, looking thoughtful. "Usually, this type of fine weapon would go for 2,500 gil, but considering your tragic circumstances, I'll only charge ye 1,800!" He smiled brightly at me while my jaw dropped. 1,800 gil?!

I quickly shook my head at him. "But that's so expensive!"

He looked disappointed. "Ye can't afford it?"

"No!"

He thought again for while. "Well…" he started, peering suspiciously at me. "How much _do_ ye have?"

I opened the gil compartment in my belt and counted the coins silently. "…Mmm…What will 200 gil and some pocket lint get me?"

He froze as if surprised by my lack of money, his face gradually turning into a deep frown. Finally, he ground out, "200 gil?! I'll be having no business with ye. Off with ye! I only have time to deal with customers with money." And with that he shooed me with his hand.

I was utterly indignant. Turning in a huff, I ran up the stairs and away from that two-bit thief of a merchant.

"How rude…" I muttered out loud. If he didn't want to be nice to me, then I wouldn't be nice to him either…

"Hello there." I turned my head towards the voice I assumed was addressing me.

'People simply must stop sneaking up on me…It's liable to give me a heart attack.'

The man standing by the side of the ship was wearing beige pants that were cut off at the ankle and a green vest-like thingy with binoculars around his neck. He waved me over, so I walked over to him.

He gave me a smile. "I'm glad to see that you're feeling better. My name's Kenta." He bowed at me slightly, still smiling.

His smile was apparently contagious, because I immediately began to smile as well. "My name's Jemma. You were the one that pulled me out of the water."

He nodded, still smiling. "Yup, that was me."

We were just having ourselves a regular 'smilefest' over here. "Thank you for saving me." Uncertain about how exactly you go about thanking someone in Spira for saving your life, I also bowed slightly.

"It was no problem at all. I was glad that I could help you out after…well, Sin's attack. Praise be to Yevon that you're okay…" He preformed the prayer at the end of his sentence.

Roshan must've been telling people what I told her. 'Good, now I won't have to repeat myself.'

The smile actually dropped from his face as he looked at me, concerned. "I heard Sin's Toxin got to you…Is there anything that you remember…?" He trailed off uncertainly.

I pretended to think really hard. "I…I remember my friend was with me. His name's Tidus. He's got spiky, blond hair and is…" I put my hand up a few inches over my head. "…this tall. Oh, he also a really good blitzer."

I turned towards Kenta with a 'worried' look on my face. If I played my cards right, I could probably stay on this ship all the way to Luca…for **free**. Before she could start in on my immorality, I mentally duck taped my consciences mouth shut. "You don't think that…" I trailed off, eyes glistening.

Kenta's eyes widened. "No, no! I'm sure you'll find him. You came out of the attack fine, so your friend probably made it out okay too! He's probably…" He looked deep in thought for a moment. "…You said he was a blitzer, right?"

Score! He played right into my hands. "Yeah."

"Then he'll probably show up in Luca for the tournament!"

I widened my eyes. "Luca?"

"Yeah!" Kenta nodded his head. "Tell you what: I'll make sure that you get to Luca, okay? Then you could probably find him there!" Kenta looked proud at his idea.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" 'Thank you Kenta! You've just assured my voyage on this trip…for now anyway.'

"Of course!" His bright smile lit up his face. Such a smiley man… "I'll go and set it up with Capitan Belindo right now." Before he rushed off, he paused and turned back to me. Taking his binoculars from his head, he handed them to me. "How about you go and get a look at Besaid. It's very pretty to witness from far away. We'll be docking in about twenty minutes or so."

I looked at the binoculars in my hands and then back up at him. "Thank you…"

He, surprise, smiled. "Don't worry about it." And he turned and walked into the room where the captain and the steering mechanism were.

I smiled as I climbed up the stairs to the upper deck. It was going to take me forever to get rid of this grin that Kenta infected me with. Not that it was something bad, but after awhile, my jaw was going to start hurting…

Getting as close as I could to the front of the ship, I placed the binoculars to my eyes.

There it was. Besaid Island. All of the colors were so dramatic. White sands, lush, green foliage, crystal clear, blue waters…It was breath taking. I would _**love**_ to have been trapped in a place like this! But no, I got the stormy, cold temple…

'Stupid, lucky Tidus…'

While I pictured myself having fun on the beach, I saw that there were some people on said beach. I knew why they were there…Lowering the binoculars, I found that I could see adequately enough to get by just by squinting my eyes. We couldn't have been more than ten minutes away from docking, I decided to kneel down and watch the goings on through the railing, as to not be seen before I wanted to be. He he he…

Soon enough, Kenta and some other crew member threw out the ropes to people waiting at the dock so the boat could be tied up. They then proceeded to lower a large plank of wood across, to connect the dock with the ship. Nothing really exciting happened, like a random shark attack or what not, sadly enough, but I couldn't stop watching the people waiting on the beach. Some of them looked like they had been crying, while others looked like they were trying to hold in their tears.

'Yuna is so loved here…' I felt sympathetic towards the people of Besaid. They probably didn't want Yuna to go, but Yuna can be pretty stubborn when it comes to matters such as this. I sighed. 'Silly girl…brave, but silly…'

All of the sudden, I heard several people shout out things like: "Lady Yuna!" "My lady!" Looking over towards the rocky cliffs, I finally saw them.

I spotted Tidus first, as he was the one I've been looking for during the last who knows how long. He looked slightly confused yet laid-back at the same time, brushing some of his blond hair out of his eyes. Same ol' Tidy.

I saw Wakka next, how could you not with his big, red hair? He looked a lot taller than I thought he would, more muscular too. But he had on a big smile on his face, so he reminded me of a big teddy bear. I smiled at the mental picture of 'Teddy Bear Wakka'. I simply must stop hanging around with such smiley people! If I don't, how shall I angst?!

Anyway, after Wakka came Lulu, all dressed in black. I was feeling hot in my shorts and t-shirt, I couldn't imagine how hot she must be in that long, black dress, which, by the way, is partially made up of leather belts. I took a quick peek into the binoculars. She didn't _seem_ to be sweating…But then again, she could just be using a spell to keep her cool. Meh.

A gargantuan blue creature pulled me away from my musings on Lulu and how she stays so cool. It was Kimahri!

'YAY!!' I truly love each and every character in Final Fantasy 10, but Kimahri was by far my favorite Ronso! He's just cool…Another thought popped into my head. How did **he** stay so cool?! I mean, he's covered in dark blue fur…yet he never seems to sweat. Do these people just not have sweat glands?! I must figure out how all of these people stay cool, other wise it shall drive me up the wall…which would be cool.

They had nearly all reached the docks when I saw Yuna. She was walking along, smiling gently at all of the people who had come to say goodbye to her. With her shoulder length brown hair, pale skin, and mismatched eyes, she looked like just a slip of a girl. Yet I knew that beneath that, there was an unstoppable bulldozer of determination and love.

'Boy…that sounded corny even to me…' I contemplated trading out my new clothes for a green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers, when the group of summoner and guardians, plus one almost-guardian, made their way onto the boat. Peering downward at them, I saw Yuna turn to face the crowd. They were all waving at her and the kids were crying their little eyes out. She smiled and preformed Yevon's prayer for them.

"Goodbye." She said softly, but strongly. The board was raised back up and the ropes were thrown back onto the ship. Slowly, the ship began to move away from the dock. Some of the younger children tried to keep up with it, but were stopped as soon as the dock ended. It was heart-wrenching to watch, but everyone held up their strong front…

The realization finally hit me. After all this time, it _finally_ hit me. Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri were just below my feet. I was going to come face to face with Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Wakka, and Kimahri. I was going to _**meet**_ _**Yuna, ****Tidus, **__**Lulu, **__**Wakka, ****and **__**Kimahri**_

I wanted to both faint and scream out loud at the same time.

'Relax Jemma…' I needed to play it cool. Otherwise, I would scare them away. Or make myself look like a total fool.

I let out a fangirl squeal in my head. This was just so exciting!

Watching the group from my perch, I saw that they were gathered by the stairs going below deck. They had a few small bag with the.

'Aha! I knew they had to have at least SOME luggage!' While I celebrated my minor discovery, the group dispersed. Yuna and Kimahri went down stairs to store the luggage…somewhere, while Lulu went to go and talk to the captain about…something. Wakka, on the other hand, went to go coach the Aurochs so that they would be ready for Luca.

And then there was Tidus, sweet Tidus. He looked like he really didn't know what to do so he went to stand underneath the top deck in the shade while he watched the Aurochs…practice. I was in no position to judge though as they were, 'cept probably Keepa, in better shape than I was.

I lied down onto the deck and contemplated how I should reveal to Tidus that I was, in fact, on the same boat that he was. Just going up to him, while shocking him slightly, wouldn't really be much fun at all. Jumping down in front of him seemed dangerous to my health, so I tossed out that idea as well.

'What to do, what to do…' I shut my eyes in an effort to will the answer to come to me. Wiggling my foot, I waited for a few more moments before I sighed in frustration.

A shadow passed over my face. "You all right?" I heard Kenta call above me. Opening my eyes, I saw him standing there. And yes, he was smiling. A confused smile but still a smile.

I sighed again. "Yeah…I'm just thinkin'…"

"Oh, okay." A typical male response.

I lifted the binoculars he had lent to me and held them up to him. "Thanks again for letting me use 'em. You were right…Besaid was really pretty." A slight understatement, but who was going to call me on it?

He took the seeing device from my hand and gave a grateful "Thanks" before he went back to work. Alone with my thoughts once more, I shut my eyes. It was only mere moments before another shadow passed over my face. I made a mental note to make the stairs squeak somehow so I would know when someone was coming up them.

'Now who is it?' I thought crankily, still unable to come up with a cool way in which to say hello to Tidus.

"Yes?" I said aloud, keeping my eyes closed. I now understood why animals enjoyed sunbathing…

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize there was someone up here already." My eyes snapped open. That Jamaican accented voice could only belong to one person.

'Oh my friggin' gourd, it's Wakka.' I stared at him for a few seconds wondering if he were real or not. Shaking my head, I sat up and replied, "That's alright…" 'Quick, Jemma! Think of something cool to say!' "What brings you up here?"

I mentally smacked myself. 'Stupid, stupid! Not horrid, but stupid!!'

Wakka smiled and held up the blitzball that he was holding. "Gonna throw the ball from up here so my team can work on their catching." He spun the ball on his middle finger, not unlike a basketball player would.

I blinked once. "Good idea…"

He nodded, placing the ball under his arm once more. "That's what I thought. You wouldn't mind if I did, ya?"

I shook my head eagerly. "No, no! Go right ahead."

"Thanks!" He grinned at me and I could feel my 'Squee-Meter' go up at least fifteen points. He turned away from me and walked over to the edge of the balcony. "Alright, boys! Get ready!" A second later he chucked the ball down towards the deck below. I could hear the Aurochs scrambling down below.

"Alright!" Wakka called out. "Toss it back up here and we'll try again!"

It seemed odd to me in retrospect that Wakka was standing not seven feet from me, practicing with the Aurochs, and I was just sitting their, gawking. Forcibly pushing my jaw up, I had a choice to make: Stay up here with Wakka in awkwardness (for me at least) or flee to below deck.

'Choices, choices…' It really wasn't that hard of a choice. I stood up and walked over towards the stairs. "Good luck practicing!" I called out at I left. He said a quick "Thanks, ya!" and turned back to practice. I don't like awkward moments…

When I reached the bottom of the staircase I glanced around quickly with wide eyes, hoping Tidus wasn't anywhere near. He seemed to have joined the Aurochs in their practice, having nothing better to do at the moment. Taking my chance, I slunk over towards the other staircase and rushed down it.

Still in super stealth mode, I rushed to a wall and placed my back against it. The only people below deck at the moment were Luzzu and Gatta, but they weren't paying any attention to me. Thankfully, I couldn't see O'aka anywhere, but it didn't mean he wasn't nearby. I slid along the wall, quite tempted to start humming my own theme music, until I reached to door to the cabin area. Peeling myself off the wall, I made to open the door when, by a miracle (the kind of which could only be described by the phrase 'bad timing'), the door flew open by itself. Well, it would have FULLY opened except my darn face was in the way.

The door slammed into my face with such a force that I had to take a few steps backwards. "OW!" I cried, clutching my nose. "My node!" I lifted my hand slightly away from my face and saw some blood on it. Ew…

"Oh! I am so sorry!" I saw a hand appear holding a handkerchief. "Please, use this."

"Danks…" I mumbled, taking the handkerchief and holding it against my nose. I looked up to see who it was that gave me a bloody nose.

It was Yuna. Of course.

She looked so concerned that I couldn't help but laugh slightly. "Don'd worry aboud id. You didn'd mean do." I slightly grimiced as I touched a particular tender spot on my nose. "You're stronger dan you look."

Her cheeks flushed slightly, turning a light pink shade. "I am so very sorry." she then proceeded to bow several times.

I didn't feel nearly as awkward being near Yuna as I had been being near Wakka. Perhaps it was because she gave off the comforting aura of a summoner or maybe because she didn't totally sneak up on me…

'Or maybe it was because her way of 'breaking the ice' was to 'break my nose'…' I laugh in my head. The whole situation was slightly painful but freakin' hilarious, to me at least.

I felt kinda bad by just teasing her, so I caught her attention, wiped my hand on the 'kerchief and held it out to her to shake. "By dame's Jebba." It didn't even sound like my name when I said it, so I was pretty sure that she wouldn't know who I was on the off chance that Tidy told her my name.

She looked slightly confused, probably because I was speaking in a 'broken nose' dialect, but shook my hand anyway. "My name is Yuna."

I smiled at her. "Dice do meed you, Yuna!"

She smiled back. "Here, let me help you. It's the least I can do."

I assumed that she was talking about using a curative spell on me, so I nodded. Yuna nodded at me and said, "I'll be right back. I just have to get my staff…" She walked back into the cabin area. I made sure to step away from the door, just to avoid a repeat of the previous few minute's events. That's when I noticed that I wasn't alone. Kimahri was standing next to the wall, just behind where Yuna had been. How I could have missed Kimahri, I shall never know.

I looked over towards him and smiled. "Hi! I'b Jebba!"

He just continued to stare off into the distance.

Undeterred in my efforts to make conversation, as I feared my boldness would leave me once my nose was fixed, I asked him, "Whad's your nab?"

He spared me a brief glance before returning to his inner thoughts. Before I could think of something else to ask him, Yuna came out of the door, slower this time, with the Rod of Wisdom.

'Yay!' Tidus did find the hidden treasure in the Cloister of Trails! Good for him! Otherwise Yuna would be stuck with a crappy weapon for awhile.

Yuna held out her staff. "Okay…Hold still for a second."

I felt a tingly sensation go all over my nose as it began to glow slightly. It was all over within a few seconds. Feeling my nose with my fingers, I found that it felt all better!

"Wow!" I said, "That's impressive! Thanks!"

She flushed slightly again. "I'm glad you're feeling better. I am sorry for hitting you."

That sentence was just plain funny, as long as you know who Yuna is.

I shook my head. "No, don't worry. It wasn't just your fault. I shouldn't have been standing so close to the door, anyway…" I definitely wasn't going to tell her WHY I was…she would think I was nuts!

She looked down slightly. "O-okay…" She made me feel like I had just kicked a puppy.

"Hey…cheer up! Don't let something like this get you down!" I smiled a big, cheesy grin.

She giggled at me and cheered right up. "You're right."

I looked over the handkerchief she had given me. "Sorry I got your handkerchief all bloody…"

"No, that's okay. I have others." Wow. Suddenly I feel like I'm in the presence of a lady…crazy, no?

"I was just about to head out onto the deck, would you care to join me?" she enquired.

Hmm…As I was probably not going to come up with another way to 'appear' to Tidus, I figured 'Why not?'

"Sure." I nodded and smiled at her. Climbing the steps, I tried to make small talk with Yuna. I tried talking about the ship, the weather, Besaid Island…It worked for a little while, Kimahri staying just behind us at all times. Finally we stopped once we got to the middle of the deck opposite the one the Aurochs were using for practice. Lulu was there leaning against one of the poles in the shade, watching us. I could feel her eyes on me, but I decided not to give into her questioning gaze _ju-ust_ yet.

I opened my arms up and took in a deep breath. "I just love that sea breeze!" I turned towards Yuna with a small smile. "How about you?"

She nodded politely. "Yes, it is very refreshing."

Encouraged at her response, I could tell that we were going to get along just fine.

Lulu called out from where she stood, "Yuna?"

Yuna turned towards her 'big sister', being family totally suits them, and responded, "Oh, yes?"

"Who's are you talking to?" She asked, walking over towards us. I could tell that Lulu was slightly wary of me because I was a new face, so I didn't take offense that she didn't ask me directly…I was actually kind of glad because she was **intimidating** up close.

Yuna smiled. "Lulu, this is Jebba. Jebba, this is Lulu."

I was confused for a second about why she called me 'Jebba' before it hit me. "Oh, no..." I said, waving my hands in front of me. "My name's not Jebba, it's…"

"Jemma?!"

I turned around to see Tidus standing there with Wakka, looking pointedly confused at me.

I decided to play along. "Tidus?!"

Wakka looked down at Tidus. "Wait, this is the girl you were talking about?"

Tidus nodded. Yuna looked at me, also confused. "You two…know each other?"

I nodded in affirmation as Tidus said, "She was there with me when Sin attacked Zanarkand."

Lulu looked unconvinced as Wakka kept looking back and forth between Tidus and myself. Yuna had a contemplative look on her face and Kimahri was just looking at us.

"H-how did you get out of those ruins?"

Looks like I had some 'splaining to do. Things were getting interesting…

* * *

**Me: **(hits head multiple times on keyboard) Ugh, I should be taken outside and shot for all the bad puns and references I put in this chapter.

**Jemma:** Yes, you should.

**Me: **(glares at OC and whips out Auron's katana) You wanna run that by me again?

**Jemma: **o.o No ma'am.

**Me:** Good. (rests katana on shoulder) Now to bring Tidy back in here…(reaches out with awesome authoress powers and plops Tidy on floor)

**Tidus: **Hey! What was that for?

**Me: **I need you two to round up everyone so that they can be here in the next chapter.

**Tidus: **Why don't you just do it?

**Jemma:** Yeah…it's not like you're doing any HARD work over there.

**Me:**…(lifts katana over head and lets out warrior-author screech)

**Tidus and Jemma:** O.O (runs for cover)

**Me: **(gives chase) Get back here, you ungrateful little…(runs off screen)

**Auron:** (walks in)…Who took my katana?


End file.
